So what did I do News Year Eve? Along with two other liked minded iron-junkies, I trained the Olympic lifts at Excel Sport and Fitness and left 2009 feeling strong and powerful. This was the second session since having to take a ten day break of all lifting to tend to a peculiar injury.
I developed at first a tingling/numbing sensation in the fingers of my right hand while lifting about a month ago. I tried to train through it but it became progressively worse as tingling was replaced with a mild burning sensation all the way through the second finger joint. I was concerned that this could be a serious injury and my fears were only re-enforced when I did some googling about it. At that point I saw my primary care physician who advised to take time off for a week or so and see if it calmed down. For the first few day of resting, it actually got worse but eventually eight days later it subsided significantly.
Asking around I found out that a fellow master lifter had the same injury occur back when he lifted for his college team. He took some time and worked around the injury avoiding any lifts that would exacerbate it. With in a month it subsided. Another friend of mine, a competitive natural body builder, also had developed it. He believed it was calcium deposits that eventually broke up and he apparently trained through it. In all cases, the injury was very localized .. no other numbness of pain in any other part of the body.
Trying to determine what triggered mine, I realized I had recently been focusing on curling my wrists under during the first and second pull. I'm sure this was a factor as I have abandoned exaggerating this and just focused more on keeping my chest over the bar. The numbness is very mild now and will continue training and monitoring my hands.
Below is my training log for the last day of training before taking the ten days off followed by four subsequent sessions.
Thursday, December 19 2009
Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
40 x 2 x 3
50 x 2 x 2
55 x 2 x 2
60 x 1 x 2 1x
60 x 2 x 2
70 x 2 x 1 2x
60 x 1 x 1
60 x 1 x 2 1x
60 x 2 x 1
RDL (kg):
60 x 1 x 5
70 x 1 x 5
80 x 1 x 5
90 x 2 x 5
100 x 1 x 3
My fingers were really bothering me this session and realized I had to see my physician and most probably discontinue training. I missed 60kg snatch several times as became more and more concerned with the numbness in my fingers.
Tuesday, December 28 2009
Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
40 x 1 x 4
50 x 4 x 2
55 x 2 x 2 1-NoLift
60 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
60 x 1 x 2 2-NoLift
Clean (kg):
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 3
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
85 x 2 x 2
90 x 3 x 1
This was my first day back after a ten days off. The snatches were way off but I surprised myself with the cleans, however the three singles with 90kg were tough recovering from the squat under.
Thursday December 31, 2009 New Years Eve
Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
40 x 1 x 3 3Pos
40 x 1 x 3
50 x 1 x 3
55 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
65 x 1 x 5 2-NoLift
70 x 2 x 1
75 x 2 x 1 2-NoLift
75 x 1 x 1
77 x 3 x 1 3-NoLift
70 x 1 x 1 NoLift
C&J (kg):
40 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
90 x 4 x 2 PR
Clean Grip Deadlift (kg):
100 x 3 x 2
120 x 2 x 2
105 x 1 x 2
100 x 1 x 2
OHS (kg):
40 x 5
50 x 5
60 x 2
Concentric Front Squat from the hole (lbs)
135 x 2 x 3
155 x 2 x 3
A great way to end the New Year. I was pleased to hit a 75kg snatch for the 2nd time. This time only 3 attempts were necessary as opposed to needing six for the first time. Even more pleasing was the four sets of double c&j with 90kg. I've never even done a one double with 90kg before.
This was the first time I did the concentric from squats. This is where a power rack is extremely useful in setting the height to the lowest position of my front squat .. from the hole. Even 60-70kg is extremely tough to do these.
Saturday, January 2 2010
Afternoon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
40 x 1 x 3
50 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3
63 x 3 x 3 2-NoLift
Front Squat (lbs):
135 x 3
155 x 2
185 x 2
205 x 2
215 x 2
225 x 3 x 1 1-NoLift
185 x 3
Concentric Front Squat from the hole (lbs)
135 x 1 x 3
155 x 2 x 3
Sunday, January 3 2010
Afternoon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
40 x 2 x 3
50 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 1
Rack Jerks from Jerk Boxes (kg):
50 x 1 x 3
70 x 1 x 3
90 x 1 x 2
Lowered the boxes so that lift starts with a slightly below parallel concentric front squat
90 x 1 x 1 NoLift
80 x 1 x 1
90 x 2 x 1
95 x 1 x 1
98 x 1 x 1
100 x 3 x 1 3-NoLift
Concentric Front Squat from the hole (lbs)
135 x 1 x 3
155 x 1 x 2
This is the first time in several months I did back to back sessions. This one was very light. I was pleased to make my first attempt with 70kg snatch as these are now becoming much more consistent.
Although a little disappointed that I missed my three jerk singles with 100kg, I realized I have yet to fully get my leg strength back from the ten day layoff.
Tuesday, January 5 2010
Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports
Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg): One hang snatch followed by two full snatches:
40 x 1 x 3
45 x 1 x 3
50 x 1 x 3
55 x 1 x 3
60 x 3 x 3
65 x 1 x 1 Hang snatch PR
70 x 1 x 3 Hang snatch PR, 1-NoLift
70 x 1 x 3 1-NoLift
65 x 1 x 3 1-NoLift
Snatch Pull (kg):
70 x 4 x 4
Front Squat (kg):
50 x 1 x 5
70 x 1 x 5
80 x 1 x 5
90 x 4 x 5 PR
90 x 1 x 3 1-NoLift
This was a great session. The hang snatches with 70kg felt very strong representing a 10kg increase on my hang snatch. The key is really getting my chest over the bar. This forces my hips back creating great leverage. I will not be surprised if a 75kg hang snatch is not far off.
The four sets of five reps of front squats with 90kg is a huge improvement. The last time I did a single set of five with that weight, it left me completely spent forcing me to drop down to 80kg where I couldn't finish a set of five. I believe the improvement is due to two reasons:
- I have been focusing on keeping an tight arched back in the hole and on the way up
- I have been doing a few sets of double of from the hole concentric front squats with very slow negatives with light weights (60-70kg). I got idea this from Dan John's From the Ground Up who swears its a fantastic way to work on front squat sticking points as long as its not overdone.
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